Author Topic: Hospitaller Battle Armor (Brotherhood of Randis)  (Read 1669 times)

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Hospitaller Battle Armor (Brotherhood of Randis)
« on: 20 January 2017, 09:23:40 »
Overview:
In the decades following the Blakist's Jihad, and the era of peace that accompanied it, Randis IV's population grew by leaps and bounds. Both via natural growth, and, for the Periphery, the nearly unheard of influx of immigrants. Many of whom, while more than willing to join the Brotherhood of Randis, were simply unable to either pilot a BattleMech, nor had the aptitude to be crew for an AerospaceFighter. Not wanting to turn away such a vast surging of support, the Brotherhood branched out into adding infantry to its battle rolls. Specifically, Battle Armored infantry. Unlike the Great Houses, Clans, or major Periphery nations, most of the smaller Periphery powers simply do not have billions of soldiers that can be thrown into combat, lost, and be replaced within days. With that in mind, Randis looked to give their few infantry units the best gear available that the Fiefdom could afford to produce.


Capabilities:
The Fiefdom and the Brotherhood, while both riding on a surge of support and economic recovery, were well aware that attempting to build a cutting edge design would not merely stretch the limits of their industry, but might well break it. As such, they fell back on the well known KISS Principle that is alive and well in the Periphery: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Foregoing any jump capability was viewed as a given from the very start of the program, with efforts instead concentrating on maximizing its ground speed and succeeded in wrapping the legs in sufficient quick-reaction myomer to allow it to keep pace with the Brotherhood's iconic 'Mech, the Hawkwolf. Mixing simplicity with safety, rather then using mere armored gauntlets, which put at risk the wearer's hands if too close to an explosion, designers encased them inside a lengthened forearm with slave-gloves controlling a pair of human-like manipulators. Battle Claws, while easily producible by local industry, were far more bulky than Inner Sphere models and thus, rejected.

For armament, the KISS Principle also prevailed as well. The main long range offensive system is a right shoulder mounted triple-tube medium-range launcher with three reloads. With a 60 percent range advantage over SRMs, the Hospitaller can remain further back from its targets, often times while still under a great deal of cover. It didn't hurt either that the munitions are incredibly simplistic and cost effective to produce in large numbers, and largely forgiving of manufacturing errors. Upon closing further with a hostile, a Hospitaller has a varitey of options available to them to choose from, as the armor's left arm is fitted with a modular equipment mount. Normally fitted with a flamer - which can be retrofitted to act as a flame ****** sprayer much like Succession War era coolant trucks - it can be adapted to carry a heavy or light machine gun, a grenade launcher, or even a light Gauss rifle or Firedrake if either ever become available to Randis. This was adopted at the request of the various infantry Brothers and Sisters expected to wear the Hospitaller into battle to allow for quickly changing battlefield conditions that might be better suited to a differing armament. A cutting torch is provided as standard, both for entry into secured areas and for assisting in search & rescue operations.

One area that the Brotherhood fought a losing battle over was in the protection of the Hospitaller. Try as they might, there just wasn't enough volume available to mount the initial desire to survive a direct large laser hit. Ablative snap-on/snap-off modular plates were tried, along with attempts to scale down hardened armor. All failed horribly, reducing the suit's mobility to a crawl, or outright immobile in the later experimental trials. Finally seeing reason, the Brotherhood reluctantly scaled back on the armor, reducing it to a level that could at least withstand a medium laser impact, or a poorly aimed missile spread. In practice, the slight armor reduction has rarely been an issue, as Knights are trained to find cover first, prior to engaging a target, rather then rushing into battle, trusting only on their armor protection. This does not however mean that the issue has been resolved, as Knight-Errant commanders are forever complaining about 'theoretical' scenarios going bad. So far, the Brotherhood has been lucky that none have yet occurred.

Variants:
The sole variant model of the Hospitaller, known informally as the 'de Vallete', is exceptionally rare to see in use, as it it solely utilized by the three squads of the Brotherhood's special operations unit, the Faussebraye. Knowing that variant would be much more limited in production, the Brotherhood was able to upgrade this model somewhat. In a straight exchange, the three tubed medium range launcher is swapped for a same number of tubes short range launcher, if with only two reloads available. The modular mount has been replaced by a hard mounted large caliber gatling gun with provisions for a second anti-personnel mount just below it, normally fitted with a laser rifle of some kind. The most major change however was the adoption of partially stealthed armor to provide additional passive protection for the Faussebraye as they perform their duties. While technically a step back compared to the main Hospitaller, one needs to consider that the Faussebraye are a unit specializing in infiltration, and normally will be engaging targets of opportunity well behind the front lines, such as mobile headquarters, fuel and ammo supply caches, and other lightly protected targets. Their job is to get as close as possible, dealing the maximum of damage within a short amount of time, and then quickly exfiltrating, rather then engaging in a long drawn out battle.

Code: [Select]
Hospitaller BattleArmor
IS TW non-box set

BV: 208
Cost: 1,654,000 C-bills

Movement: 3/3
(Burdened by unjettisoned body-mounted missile launchers)

Internal: 4
Armor: 28
                     Internal    Armor
--------------------------------------
Trooper 1                   1        7
Trooper 2                   1        7
Trooper 3                   1        7
Trooper 4                   1        7

Weapon                         Loc  Heat
----------------------------------------
Swarm Mek                      Squad     0
Attack Swarmed Mek             Squad     0
Stop Swarm Attack              Squad     0
Leg Attack                     Squad     0
MRM 3 (Body)                   Squad     0
Flamer (Left arm)              Squad     3

Ammo                           Loc Shots
----------------------------------------
MRM 3 Ammo                     Squad     3

Equipment                      Loc
----------------------------------
Basic Manipulator (Left arm)   Squad
Basic Manipulator (Right arm)  Squad
BA Standard                    None
Modular Equipment Adaptor (Left arm) Squad
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Right arm) Squad
Cutting Torch (Right arm)      Squad


Code: [Select]
Hospitaller 'de Vallete' BattleArmor
IS TW non-box set

BV: 275
Cost: 1,660,000 C-bills

Movement: 3/3
(Burdened by unjettisoned body-mounted missile launchers)

Internal: 4
Armor: 28
                     Internal    Armor
--------------------------------------
Trooper 1                   1        7
Trooper 2                   1        7
Trooper 3                   1        7
Trooper 4                   1        7

Weapon                         Loc  Heat
----------------------------------------
Swarm Mek                      Squad     0
Attack Swarmed Mek             Squad     0
Stop Swarm Attack              Squad     0
Leg Attack                     Squad     0
SRM 3 (Body)                   Squad     0
Machine Gun (Left arm)         Squad     0

Ammo                           Loc Shots
----------------------------------------
BA SRM 3 Ammo                  Squad     2

Equipment                      Loc
----------------------------------
Basic Manipulator (Left arm)   Squad
Basic Manipulator (Right arm)  Squad
Cutting Torch (Right arm)      Squad
BA Stealth (Basic) (Left arm)  Squad
BA Stealth (Basic) (Right arm) Squad
BA Stealth (Basic) (Body)      Squad
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Right arm) Squad
Anti Personnel Weapon Mount (Left arm) Squad


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